Yoruba Nation : Hustlers Can't Lead Or Deceive Us, Akeredolu Tells Akintoye, Others

              

From Ayobami Ife

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has maintained his stand that he would not support the call for the creation of a Yoruba Nation out of Nigeria by a group of people.

Akeredolu said  those canvassing 

secession  were not representatives of the Yorubas, describing them as "impostors."

The All Progressives Congress(APC) governor who was apparently reacting to a statement credited to a group under the aegis of the Ilana Omo Oodua led by Prof Banji Akintoye, said the Yoruba people would not allow the group of hustlers, living largely in anonymity but struggling for relevance, to lead any agitation on their behalf.

He urged the second Republic Senator and professor of history to submit himself to the people if he was desirous of representing them, adding that the Yorubaland would not be deceived by the 

secessionists through sophistry and demagoguery.

The Daily Crucible recalls that Prof. Akintoye had earlier criticized Akeredolu for rejecting the call for the creation of a Yoruba Nation, saying Akeredolu spoke for himself, and not the people of Ondo State.

However, in a statement by the Special Assistant to Akeredolu on Special Duties and Strategy, Doyin Odebowale, Akeredolu on Thursday, declared that Akintoye was not a leader of Yorubaland and could not speak for the race.

“Let it be reiterated again. There will be no agitation for secession in any part of Ondo State. Prof Akintoye should submit himself to the people if he is so desirous of representing them.

“it is presumptuous, denigrating and condescendingly spiteful for a group of hustlers, living largely in anonymity but struggling for relevance, to keep proclaiming and legislating on issues which affect the destiny of a whole people, without the faintest suggestion of paying even scant regard to their feelings or extending due courtesy to the real representatives of the people whose opinions they discount as unimportant.

” The people are discerning. They know the impostors. They have not forgotten the activities of the suborned agitators, the presumed penitent activists. The Ondo people, and indeed Yoruba are the easiest to lead but the most difficult to deceive. With them sophistry and demagoguery have their limits,” he stated.